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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27944753">'Apologies, My Queen'</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwiceALady/pseuds/TwiceALady'>TwiceALady</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hansanna for the Holidays [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Frozen (Disney Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Apologies, Blizzards &amp; Snowstorms, Explicit Language, F/M, Infidelity, Nudity, One Night Stands, Oral Sex, Prompt Fill, Sauna, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Smut, Snowed In</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:07:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,025</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27944753</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwiceALady/pseuds/TwiceALady</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Stranded alone at a small hunting lodge during one of the worst blizzards the Southern Isles has ever seen, Hans is finally given the opportunity to apologize properly to Anna, only she won’t believe a word of it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anna/Hans (Disney)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hansanna for the Holidays [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827499</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>'Apologies, My Queen'</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Hansanna for the Holidays 2020 prompt fill for Day 1: Break The Ice - Three Year Gap Meet (Again) Cute</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>It could always be worse,</em> at least, that’s what she kept repeating to herself as she rode on. The falling snow had gotten much heavier in just a few short minutes, and Anna was having difficulty seeing anything ahead. The trail gone. Her riding companions <em>still</em> nowhere in sight.</p>
<p>
  <em>As long as you don’t panic. You’ll figure something out, just keep a calm head. They have to be looking for you too.</em>
</p>
<p>“Prince Klaus?” she called again; the words lost to the howl of the wind. “Prince Lennart?” She cocked an ear to listen for any sort of response, any indication of which direction she should go, and got nothing but silence. “Lady Winifred?”</p>
<p>Nothing.</p>
<p>She shivered, shrugging her shoulders up and keeping her arms pressed tightly to her body as she rode, her fingertips starting to feel numb on the reins. It was getting colder and the snow wasn’t letting up. The mark of a storm approaching. The safest thing to do was to turn her horse around and hope the animal knew his way back home to the palace stables. She’d need to get indoors soon.</p>
<p>
  <em>Don’t really need to freeze to death again, do we?</em>
</p>
<p>She tried calling for her party one last time, her voice hoarse from all the previous shouting she’d been doing the past half hour, trying to find them. Still unsure how exactly she had managed to lose herself from three riders on a trail through the royal woods.</p>
<p>
  <em>Where are they?</em>
</p>
<p>“Come on, Sitron,” she said, trying to turn the horse around. “We’ll just have to try to make it back ourselves…” she glanced around nervously, nothing but the swirl of snow.  “I hope the others are okay.”</p>
<p>But Sitron was not keen on turning around or being cooperative, likely just as disoriented as she was with the falling snow and the wind. The horse was a good steed, but stubborn. He needed a strong lead and a firm hand. An odd choice of mount to give a near stranger, and thankfully Anna didn’t really mind—being a strong enough rider herself—but the snow was getting thicker and she was getting colder.</p>
<p>An amiable, docile creature might have been better for this situation, because the drop in temperature was sending a frightening and familiar chill straight through to her bones. She did not want to have to fight with a horse when that old anxiety and dread came on, when the memory of the bitter cold and what awaited crept up in her mind.</p>
<p>
  <em>Don’t panic! It won’t get to that!</em>
</p>
<p>She tried to steer Sitron, but the horse snorted at her in contempt, jerking his head in the opposite direction, trying to go that way instead of where Anna was trying to lead him.</p>
<p>“No,” Anna said, starting to lose her patience, “we didn’t come from over there. We need to get back to the palace.” Perhaps the horse recognized a few command words. “The <em>stable</em>, Sitron. <em>Home.</em>”</p>
<p>Sitron still seemed intent on venturing off in a direction Anna knew they hadn’t been. At least, she was sure they <em>hadn’t</em> been that way…God, maybe they had. She looked around, searching for any sort of landmark that looked familiar and…found nothing. The snow was way too thick to see through now.</p>
<p>
  <em>Well, that’s just great. Really wonderful. You’re stuck in an unfamiliar kingdom with an unfamiliar horse in the middle of a snowstorm. Great job on your first diplomatic trip as Queen of Arendelle, Anna.</em>
</p>
<p>She shivered again the act triggering her teeth to chatter. Her toes were numbing from the cold. Concern began to slip into worry when her face began to feel prickly wherever the air touched bare skin.</p>
<p>
  <em>You need to find shelter. Now!</em>
</p>
<p>Left with few options, she decided to let the horse lead. Trusting that the animal would at the very least know where to find some sort of shelter where they could wait out the storm. Sitron knew this land way better than her. Plus, survival instincts and all that. She reminded herself, as calmly as she could that Sitron’s saddle bag was equipped with a few emergency provisions and the leftovers of her picnic lunch from earlier. She wouldn’t starve, she could build a fire—</p>
<p><em>Wait.</em> Anna caught a faint whiff of something in the air. <em>Is that wood burning? </em>She inhaled through her nose deeply, the sting of cold hitting her nostrils and making her wheeze, but she caught the smell again, stronger the further Sitron walked.</p>
<p>A fire! There was a fire nearby.</p>
<p>Perhaps he’d found the riding party!</p>
<p>“Good boy, Sitron!” She patted the horse’s neck. Squinting her eyes, she tried to see through the swirling haze of snow pelting her face. Looking for any visual sign of life and warmth ahead. And there, in the distance, she thought she could make out the soft glow of fire light. The smell of burning wood stronger with each step the horse took, until finally, Anna could make out the faint square shape of a cabin, lit from the inside.</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh, thank God!</em>
</p>
<p>Sitron trotted right up to the cabin as though he’d done it thousands of times before, indicating that this must be where the horse had been trained to go, likely in the event of an emergency. It was silly to think that the royal woods and lands wouldn’t be set up with little lodges equipped for shelter. The Southern Isles royal family was quite big on their riding and hunting.</p>
<p>Anna dismounted quickly. She was chilled to the absolute bone; her face just as numb as her hands and feet. Wood burning and the soft, warm glow of firelight from the windows surely meant someone was inside. She hurried breathlessly up to the cabin door, wasting not another minute and knocked urgently, wincing in pain with each knock from her frozen fists.</p>
<p>“Hello?” she called when no one immediately answered. “Hello? I am so sorry to intrude, but I need hel—”</p>
<p>The door opened, revealing the cabin’s occupant, and Anna’s words fell straight off her tongue and onto the frozen doorstep. He stood before her, still as tall, still as handsome, but less dressed than what Anna was used to seeing in a court gentleman—especially from a prince. Especially <em>this</em> prince.</p>
<p>Hans.</p>
<p>
  <em>So, this is where he’s been.</em>
</p>
<p>From the look of him, he looked as though he was not expecting visitors…<em>and why would he be? </em>She scolded herself silently for immediately judging his appearance as scandalous. Men didn’t just answer doors in hastily tucked in shirts and trousers. <em>You imposed on him.</em> <em>Not the other way around. </em></p>
<p>She did her best to keep her eyes on his face and not on the triangle slip of bare flesh exposing his throat and clavicles to her, or to the rolled-up sleeves showcasing his smooth, muscled forearms, or to his trim waistline where his shirt was only half tucked into those snug, form fitting trousers that barely contained his—</p>
<p>She jerked her eyes back up to his face, certain she’d gone red in hers.</p>
<p>He stared at her in utter shock. His eyes quickly flitted over her as if trying to convince himself she was a hallucination of some sort. Then his face sharpened from bewildered gaze to concerned frown when his eyes moved past her to the…horse? His attention now solely on the animal.</p>
<p>His frown deepened almost to the point of a scowl. “Get inside.” He motioned for her to enter, and she was cold enough that she’d accept help from the Devil himself if he stood before her…which to be fair, he kinda did.</p>
<p>Anna did as she was told, and stepped inside the cabin, immediately assaulted by heat. Wonderful, magnificent, cloying heat. <em>Worth it</em>. Even with her saviour being Hans.</p>
<p>“Make yourself at home,” he quipped dryly while shoving boots and a coat on. “I need to get him stabled, properly dried—”</p>
<p>“He’s a bit finicky,” Anna offered, not really knowing what else to say. Finding normalcy in talking about the horse as if she had spoken to Hans every day of her life, and that he was not the man she had loved so fiercely who had left her for dead and tried to execute her sister three years earlier.</p>
<p>“I know how to look after my own horse, thank you.”</p>
<p>“He’s yours?” Anna asked, but Hans was already slamming the door behind him and leaving her standing alone in the cabin’s entry way.</p>
<p>She stood there, blinking. Still trying to process that she was now in the company of Hans, and that finding him out here in a remote cabin actually made a lot of sense. It explained why he had not been present at the palace when she had arrived days ago.</p>
<p><em>Not</em> that she missed him or had hoped to see him again by any means.</p>
<p>She’d met every Westergaard <em>but</em> Hans upon her arrival, and while she had certainly noticed his absence, she had not had the courage to ask anyone about him. <em>Wouldn’t want people getting the wrong idea. Why would the new Queen of Arendelle ask after her ex-fiancé?</em></p>
<p>She fingered her engagement ring from Kristoff, twisting the band around her finger, reminding herself that she wasn’t that foolish girl from three years ago who had stupidly blundered into a marriage proposal from a conniving serpent.</p>
<p>A conniving serpent, who still looked as handsome as sin, and as tempting to boot. Three years later, and Hans was <em>still</em> devilishly attractive, <em>still</em> made her pulse race on sight—worse seeing him half dressed.</p>
<p>It wasn’t fair.</p>
<p>He <em>still</em> held claim over the tiniest fraction of her heart, though she did her best to pretend he didn’t. Despite knowing everything he was and what he was capable of, that small thread of attraction she had for him had never quite been snipped. She feared such knowledge only made him more attractive. An idea she was not keen to entertain. She did not like trouble. She did not like danger. She liked warmth and devotion, safety and reliability. The mundane and ordinary.</p>
<p>Hans was none of those things.</p>
<p>And now she was stuck out here with him. With the snowstorm in full swing there was no leaving this cabin. She was here for at least the night, and depending on whether or not the rest of her riding party came across the cabin, she was alone in the woods with Hans.</p>
<p><em>Trapped here, just the two of us</em>.</p>
<p>An odd sort of tremor passed through her body, making her nerves tingle in excitement.</p>
<p>
  <em>You’re just cold. Take off your wet clothes and go sit by the fire.</em>
</p>
<p>The cabin was small. A single room containing a fireplace on one end and a wood burning stove on the other. It was a very modest set up, especially for royalty, yet it was still equipped with all the comforts one might need. A small table and chair for dining in the tiny kitchen, and one comfy, pillow-strewn settee centred before the fireplace making up a living room. An open loft for the bed with a ladder leading up to it completed the cabin’s living space. Two doors stood side by side at the back of the room, one likely a water closet and the other probably storage.</p>
<p>Anna tugged off her sopping wet boots; the layer of snow that had covered her outerwear quickly began melting in the cabin’s heat, leaving her clothes wet and uncomfortable. And a nightmare to get out of. She struggled to remove her riding habit by herself, taking several unpleasant minutes to do so.</p>
<p>A clammy chill sent any warmth she’d acquired away once she’d freed herself from her outerwear. She wanted to get in front of that fire, and as far as she could see, Hans had previously set himself up quite nicely in front of the fireplace on the hearth rug. Not even bothering with the settee.</p>
<p>She spied an open book, a mug, and a collection of pillows and blankets arranged in a cozy sort of nest that looked above and beyond appealing to her. She secretly hated that Hans had built himself the same sort of set up she would have.</p>
<p>She hung her wet clothes up on the hook by the door and went straight for the fire. Gingerly sitting down right in front of the grate, careful not to spill Hans’s mug of whatever it was he’d been drinking. She leaned forward and sniffed the glass. Mulled wine.</p>
<p>A cozy little evening he’d had planned here, comfy and warm, a way to wait out a storm, right down to his reading by the fire. Anna curiously peered over at the open book he’d been reading and blanched.</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh dear.</em>
</p>
<p>A book of lewd ink plates sat open before her, two scandalously inappropriate drawings of a man and a woman… doing…well, that’s certainly not how she’d been told it was done…</p>
<p>She immediately shuffled away from the book, embarrassed to find such a personal thing left out in the open for her to see. All because she had shown up on his doorstep unannounced. Modesty made her want to close the book, but she knew better than to reveal to him that she’d seen it in the first place. Best to act like it had gone unnoticed. There was no sense in making their unplanned reunion any more awkward than it already was.</p>
<p>It would be prudent to sit on the settee instead, despite the comfort and closeness to the fire Hans’s pillow nest provided.</p>
<p>She moved to the settee and sat down, keeping her back straight and prim. Her hands tucked neatly in her lap. The book having rattled her senses, and jostling how she liked to envision Hans—which was more monster than man. She didn’t like evidence that humanized him, and this book had—in the most discomforting way for her. Hans as a sexual being was not the best path for her brain to follow right now.</p>
<p>She had never really given much thought to men and their primal urges, since it was something she’d never been directly faced with before. Even three years of courtship with Kristoff had kept her blessedly pure from such notions. Her fiancé being nothing but demure and bashful over even the tiniest forms of affection, let alone passion.</p>
<p>Anna found herself twisting her ring around her finger again, feeling abnormally restless the longer she sat by herself, alone with the book and unsure of when Hans would return.</p>
<p>
  <em>Best to start acting like a queen now.</em>
</p>
<p>She should use this time to plan out how to behave around him, what she should demand of him since they would be sharing this space for an undeterminable amount of time. What she would require of him and his cabin. But try as she might, her eyes kept wandering back to the book.</p>
<p>She swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat, her mind putting all the pieces together as she unconsciously squirmed in her seat, afflicted in a way she’d never been before. <em>Had he been— </em>She paled.<em> The book,</em> <em>the pillow nest, the drink by the fire, hastily dressed when he’d opened the door—</em></p>
<p>As if on cue, the outside door swung open and she felt the sudden rush of cold wind hit her, snagging whatever warmth she’d acquired by the fire away. Hans was back. He closed the door as quickly as he’d opened it, bolting it tight before stripping off his coat and boots.</p>
<p>“Looks like we’re in for one heck of a night. Storm’s in full swing now,” he commented. “God, look at you, you’re still shivering. Come on.” He strode past her to the two doors at the back of the cabin and to Anna’s horror, he began to strip himself naked. “It’ll only take me a moment to get it going.”</p>
<p>Anna stared at him, completely dumfounded. This was not happening. Surely, the cold had gotten to her. Was ice madness a thing?  She certainly hadn’t been out in the storm long enough for hypothermia to set in, right?</p>
<p>Yet, there was Hans, completely at ease and completely naked right in front of her.</p>
<p>“I’ve some extra towels here somewhere,” he was saying as he bent over, preoccupied with his searching, and she immediately felt like the stupidest person on earth.</p>
<p>A sauna. The cabin had a sauna that he was readying for them. A perfectly normal, perfectly reasonable solution to warm them both up.</p>
<p>“Go ahead and get in,” he said, reaching his arm out and handing her a towel, which she took. “I’ll be in with the water in just a moment.” He turned away from her, reaching for a wooden pail from a shelf.</p>
<p>She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at that well sculpted, naked back. He was being far too accommodating. Too familiar. Treating her like <em>they</em> had never happened and had been something else entirely. Like their unpleasant history wasn’t there.</p>
<p>Like they were <em>friends.</em></p>
<p>“I’m not going in there first!” she blurted out in a sudden and unfounded panic. “You’ll lock me in and try to steam me to death or something!”</p>
<p>He froze in mid reach at her words, his muscles stiffening as though she’d slapped him. Anna immediately clamped her mouth shut. Oh God, <em>why</em> had she just said that out loud? She sounded like a hysterical ninny! That was all she needed. Hans starting some rumour about how overemotional and irrational she was, the new Queen of Arendelle, prone to fits. As if she didn’t already have enough problems proving her worth and right to the throne.</p>
<p>He turned slowly, meeting her eyes very carefully. “I understand that this is not an optimal situation for you, but I swear I am not going to harm you in any way. Given our history, I can see why you’d default to that, but it would look very bad for me, wouldn’t it, if the new Queen of Arendelle suddenly met her demise in my company? It would look especially bad for the Southern Isles. Contrary to whatever you’re thinking, your death no longer benefits me at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, and frankly, it’s in my best interest to keep you as safe and healthy as possible.”</p>
<p>His face was serious to the point of stern that Anna had the sudden urge to sink lower into the settee, completely embarrassed by her outburst. She gave him the slightest of nods, but kept her ground.</p>
<p>He rolled his eyes, perturbed but unsurprised. “Do what you like,” he said, returning to fetch the pail. “But don’t say I didn’t offer you all the amenities and comforts I had available to me when they come to get you in the morning.”</p>
<p>“I would appreciate the sauna,” Anna said quietly after a moment, moving to remove her own clothing stiffly. “Thank you for your hospitality.” The words felt like bitter medicine on her tongue. It was almost ludicrous to show Hans any form of gratitude. Especially since he’d rather have hidden away in a remote cabin than face her in person at the palace. He hadn’t even offered her some canned apology. <em>Not</em> that she even wanted or needed an apology for him. <em>No,</em> she’d put up with his company for the night only because she had to. There was no point in expecting anything from the man outside of the courtesy her station demanded of him.</p>
<p>Despite the obvious awkwardness of sharing the space with Hans, a sauna was a very pleasing idea that she was certainly not about to dismiss. And as much as she hated to admit it, Hans was right. It was an excellent and completely reasonable way to warm up fast.</p>
<p>But…it was awkward.</p>
<p>So unbelievably awkward.</p>
<p>The sauna was indeed quite small, really only big enough to house two people at the most. They sat together in the steam and heat, almost cramped, doing their best not to touch the other by accident. Anna acutely aware of Hans’s well chiselled chest and forearms, close up on display for her. Hating that although she had already seen him naked, he somehow appeared more desirable—forbidden even, with a towel wrapped around his hips.</p>
<p>It was one thing to share a sauna with close friends and family, quite another to do so alone with a man she was attracted to.</p>
<p><em>Used to be attracted to, </em>she admonished silently.</p>
<p>She could only imagine that if she was thinking such things about his body, what he was thinking about <em>hers.</em> She swore she caught him a few times shifting his gaze lower than her face before quickly focusing politely on her eyes. A flush to his cheeks she couldn’t pinpoint on the heat of the sauna or the heat of his imagination.</p>
<p>“There’s a good chance my party may show up,” she said, trying to find a safe topic of conversation, and needing to break the heavy silence between. “I lost them on the trails, though I’m still not sure how I managed to do that.”</p>
<p>He made a strangled, choking sound and Anna looked at him in alarm.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” he managed politely. “It’s just…you really do automatically think the best of people, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Excuse me?”</p>
<p>He sighed, looking uncomfortable. “You didn’t <em>lose them.</em> They ‘lost’ <em>you,</em> and quite on purpose.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” she asked, a small prickling sensation on the back of her neck. Now that she thought about it, it had seemed strange how quickly she had lost her riding party and without a trace. Stranger still that despite calling for them and riding a well used trail, she had not found them, nor had they found her. She immediately felt ill.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid you’re the unfortunate victim of a rather mean-spirited practical joke. One likely meant for my benefit. I suppose they thought it fun to put you on my horse, knowing he’d show up here where I was once the weather turned. Effectively trapping us together for at least the night.”</p>
<p><em>At least. </em>He didn’t say it, but it was there. The unspoken possibility that they may very well be here longer than one night. <em>Lord,</em> Mattias was going to have a field day…he probably already was.</p>
<p>“And if I didn’t make it to the cabin, would it still have been funny if I froze to death?” Anna snapped, the humiliation at being tricked and the anger from her very real fear of not finding shelter rose up swift and sharp.</p>
<p>“Oh, they wouldn’t have let it come to that, I’m sure,” Hans answered thoughtfully. “I’ll bet they doubled back and were following you at a safe distance until you arrived here. Then went back to the palace, likely with a story about leaving you here because it was safer.”</p>
<p><em>Safer.</em> Anna scowled.</p>
<p>“Look, I’m sorry it happened,” he placated, “and believe me, I’m just as unamused as you are. I’d rather not have seen you at all, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”</p>
<p>Her scowl deepened, and he moved to remedy the situation…and avoid explaining himself.</p>
<p>“I bet you’re hungry. Let’s get you some dry clothes and something to eat. You can take the loft. It’s semi-private and it’s quite warm—with the heat rising and all.”</p>
<p>
  <em>***</em>
</p>
<p>Hans had brought her one of his linen shirts to wear, and she hated that it was comfortable and soft and smelled like him. That it reminded her of long ago when she had been wrapped in his arms on the most magical night of her life.</p>
<p>She also hated that he made porridge exactly the way she liked eating it best. Topped with thick cream, dark brown sugar and raisins.</p>
<p>While she ate, he had moved to his pillow nest, inconspicuously retrieving his lewd book from the floor and snapping it shut, placing it on the topmost shelf of his bookshelf and, she noticed with a bit of a smirk, pushed further back than the rest of the spines. A clear indication that he did not want her coming across it.</p>
<p>She almost considered mentioning it, just to see if she could rattle him and if he’d blush.</p>
<p>He went about refilling his drink, and pouring one for her with a strange sort of normalcy or domestic intimacy that it made her chest ache. She clutched her mug of mulled wine in her hands and made her way slowly to where he was by the fire.</p>
<p>
  <em>This is what we could have been.</em>
</p>
<p>He sat on the settee instead of his lovely hearth nest, and Anna could only assume it was an attempt at being proper in her presence. She wasn’t sure how proper it was to sit beside him in her state of undress, so she went and plopped herself down right into the nest of pillows and pulled a blanket around her legs, carefully not to slosh her drink. It seemed much more polite to sit on the floor than with him.</p>
<p>He took a long sip of his drink, his eyes watching her over the rim of his cup. Quiet, calculating, that was the thing about Hans, he was always trying to read a room. This time trying to read <em>her.</em> Trying and coming up unsuccessful.</p>
<p>She took a small sip of her own drink, and met his eye. Proud to see his eyebrows crease, his gaze uncertain.</p>
<p>
  <em>Not so easy to read now, am I?</em>
</p>
<p>“I suppose this is where I ought to give the Queen of Arendelle my formal apology.”</p>
<p>She nearly spit out her drink, and quickly composed herself. Her heart still pounding as she pretended to busy herself with a cushion tassel. “I’m not interested in your formal apologies. Especially when you didn’t want to see me in the first place.” She instantly regretted that last part and hated the sting of hurt that came from voicing that pain out loud. She sounded just like a jilted lover. “I don’t believe there is anything you could ever say that would make amends between us.”</p>
<p>He blinked, shifting in his seat. “Yes, well, it really doesn’t do me any good to have the wrath of a queen now, does it?” To her surprise, he placed his cup on the floor and moved from the settee to the nest, sitting directly across from her. Her words had hardly been an invitation for him to join her down here.</p>
<p>
  <em>What was he playing at?</em>
</p>
<p>Anna gritted her teeth, trying to remain civil, remembering exactly how Hans had been after the fiasco in Arendelle. How he hadn’t bothered to apologize, so much as his parents had instead. How even now with her in his homeland, he had planned to avoid her instead of offer up a meager apology.</p>
<p>“You didn’t seem to care about apologies when Elsa was the queen.”</p>
<p>Hans scoffed and rolled his eyes, reaching for his cup. “Elsa was hardly a queen.” He tipped his drink to his lips, again watching her carefully over the rim.</p>
<p>Keeping her resolve, she flicked him a careless glance. She would not let him bait her. “Insulting my sister? You’re doing a terrible job of leading into an apology.”</p>
<p>He grinned then, his smile wide and eyes full of mischief and interest. “And yet, I’m still not wrong. You don’t even deny it. I always knew deep down you believed it too.”</p>
<p><em>That</em> rattled her. She had never told anyone that. Not even Kristoff.</p>
<p>“Think whatever you like, Hans,” Anna began loftily, weaving the lie. “You and I have very little in common, and any perceived similarities you see don’t change the fact that I despise you, or that there is absolutely no sequence of words that could ever fall off your tongue I’d accept as an actual apology.”</p>
<p>He cocked his head to the side, his demeanor seeming to light up at her words. “<em>Ah,</em> but now you’re willing to let me at least try? You’ll entertain me so long as it involves me making a fool of myself and in vain?”</p>
<p>“For all the good it would do,” Anna muttered, though the idea of Hans acting the fool would amuse her almost as much as turning down each and every attempt he made at an apology. “Sure, go ahead if you must. Do your best. It will be a wasted effort, I assure you.”</p>
<p>“Nonetheless,” he answered before draining his cup and putting the mug down with a resolute thump on the floor. “Let’s put my tongue to the test then, shall we?”</p>
<p>He moved.</p>
<p>Lightning quick, he moved. Drawing up beside her in what she could only describe as a slither, striking the way a snake would. <em>How very fitting,</em> she thought dimly before his mouth captured hers in a kiss.</p>
<p>An exquisite kiss. A kiss she felt straight to her loins and all the way down to the tips of her toes. A kiss she would have never expected Hans capable of.</p>
<p>“Are you mad?” she gasped, wrenching away from him, and desperately needing to get some space between them because a kiss from Hans was not supposed to be breathtaking or lighting her senses aflame. She found it extremely troubling, and not at all for the reasons it should. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?”</p>
<p>He shrugged rather nonchalantly, that twinkle of mischief ever present in his eye, only this time combined with a sort of smug self confidence that shook her to the core. She had been prepared for many things from Hans tonight, but certainly not <em>this.</em></p>
<p>“Apologizing within the restrictions you imposed, <em>madam.”</em></p>
<p>She did not like the way his address to her rolled off his tongue and into her mind with the most salacious intentions. There had obviously been a misunderstanding. <em>Yes,</em> the rational part of her brain reasoned, <em>something got mixed up here. </em>Time to set it right.</p>
<p>She gulped. “I didn’t—”</p>
<p>“—you said it yourself,” Hans interrupted, his tone very calm, very smooth. Very rational. “There is no sentence I could ever utter that you’d accept, but that I was free to try my best at apologizing anyway.” He sidled up to her, effectively closing the space she’d gained from him. He bent his lips towards her ear and whispered, “And let’s be real, Anna, you and I both know my actions always did speak louder than my words.”</p>
<p>“I’m engaged!” she sputtered. The only thing she could think of to say, as if he didn’t already know that and had proceeded to seduce her anyway.</p>
<p>“Good for you,” he chuckled, clearly enjoying how flustered she’d become. “I’m not about to up and steal you for myself. I’m apologizing to you, not marrying you.”</p>
<p>She turned her head and stared at him, her mouth agape. This was insane. <em>He</em> was insane. How he could ever think that she’d be a willing party to such a scandalous proposition—</p>
<p>“And besides, you can’t say you never thought about it, can you?” His voice dipped lower, the sound reverberating off her skin and making her shiver in forbidden delight. “About us?”</p>
<p>“I—” Her cheeks flushed scarlet. They shouldn’t be having this conversation. It was completely inappropriate for a whole host of reasons, and how dare he take such liberties with her so casually! But his words, God help her, piqued her interest and sparked her curiosity. A long latent question she’d carried for years finally about to be answered. The words came out ragged, and breathless, needy. “Are you saying you have?”</p>
<p>He merely smiled that soft, secretive smile of his, the one with the hooded gaze that made him look equal parts angelic and devilish. The one that had stirred her insides and made her bones feel like jelly when she had first met him. She was unsurprised at all that this particular smile still worked on her, and that alone revealed the answer she had been looking for.</p>
<p>
  <em>The answer you were hoping for.</em>
</p>
<p>“One night, that’s all I’m asking,” he pleaded quietly. “We’re here all alone and uninterrupted, anyway. It doesn’t have to count as anything but an official apology. One night, and we get this out of our systems, then we never have to wonder, never have to speak of it again. We close that door and continue on our separate ways, live our separate lives. We don’t even have to take it that far, just far enough that we’d both know. Far enough to finally satisfy the answer to that question.”</p>
<p>
  <em>God…</em>
</p>
<p>It was a lot to ask, and Anna could scarcely believe he’d actually had the nerve to do it in the first place.  And yet, as preposterous as the whole idea was, she couldn’t deny its merit. Couldn’t deny that she’d likely regret either choice she made in this matter. It almost seemed just as silly to refuse the request as it was to grant it.</p>
<p>How long now had she been living with the ghost of Hans? Just over three years? And now she’d been presented with the opportunity by the man himself to finally bury him and put their past to rest. To be haunted by him no longer. It would only benefit her relationship with Kristoff to be rid of Hans once and for all. If she did this, she could let go and move on. Move on properly with Kristoff.</p>
<p>“Alright,” she said softly, making sure to meet him in the eye. “I’ll let you…<em>apologize</em>, but I’ll not need to ruin myself completely for that answer, got it?”</p>
<p>He nodded. “Understood.”</p>
<p>Anna took a deep breath. They were really going to do this<em>. </em>Christ, <em>she</em> was really going to do this.</p>
<p>A solemn pact had been made between them in the heat of a moment that had happened all by chance, by a nasty prank, and she was onboard with it. It was by far the most insane thing she had ever done.</p>
<p><em>No more crazy after this, Anna,</em> she warned herself. <em>This is our last stand before embracing a respectable and dignified life as a ruler. As a queen. After this, you become the epitome of good grace and staunch propriety.</em></p>
<p>Lord already knew she was expected to be. Had to be. Her transition into power had not been a smooth one. She had both Elsa’s rather blemished legacy <em>and</em> Kristoff’s inaptitude for navigating royal duties to contend with. The odds had been stacked against her. Dare she admit, even to herself, that being stranded here with Hans was the first bit of reprieve or even <em>fun</em> she’d had since her sister had unexpectedly given her the title of Arendelle’s queen?</p>
<p>Hans got up and doused the lamps, leaving the only light source that of the fire roaring in the fireplace, returning to the nest of pillows and blankets. The firelight glinted off his eyes, giving the field green a warmth and a depth that was almost heartbreaking for her to look at. She broke off the eye contact, averting her gaze for fear she might get lost in the memories of what they had been to each other that night. Before everything had gone so horribly and irrevocably wrong. How if things had been different—if <em>he</em> had been different—the ring on her finger would have been his.</p>
<p>He sighed before slinking down onto his belly and at her feet. An odd place to begin, and one that made Anna wholly aware of just how underdressed she was, wearing only his shirt. One tug of the blanket and her calves would be bare to him. Such a silly thing to be concerned about after they’d shared a sauna, but this was different from that. The lines had been set and drawn; the boundaries pushed far beyond anything decent or common.</p>
<p>And she wanted it. She wanted that trouble. That danger. And all the thrills that came with it. That came with <em>him.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Just for one night.</em>
</p>
<p>She swallowed hard when he pulled the blanket away and she felt the heat of his breath on her naked skin. Visons of his lewd ink plates flashed in her mind, her loins growing slick with molten heat when she realized she recognized what exactly he was positioning himself for.</p>
<p>He slid smoothly on his belly beneath her, sweeping her calves up over his shoulders and tugging her towards him so his head fit neatly between her thighs. The act so natural and at ease for him, as if he believed he belonged there.</p>
<p>His breathing became heavy and thick, a sound that drove her crazy. Hearing his excitement at being with her so clearly in just his breath was amazing. She basked in it. Enjoying for the first time in a long time being seen as desirable, as a woman, as a sexual being herself. Something she was not used to being seen as, but found she craved. Something only he had ever seemed to do with her.</p>
<p>A pang of guilt hit her and she quickly brushed it aside, a lick of bitterness seeping in. If Kristoff had been an assertive lover in the first place, then maybe she wouldn’t have fallen into temptation so easily with Hans. Refusing would have been the default answer without question. Sometimes, she just wanted to know she was wanted.</p>
<p>With firm hands on her thighs, Hans pulled her attention back to him. Brushing the hem of her shirt upwards and out of his way. Exposing her fully to him. The small moan that tumbled from his lips at the sight of her nearly sent her off the deep end.</p>
<p>“Hans?” she whispered when he didn’t move a muscle, seemingly rendered stupid and immobile while she was going crazy with anticipation for his tongue. Every god damn nerve in her body on fire. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”</p>
<p>His eyes flicked up to meet hers for only a moment, the lust burning there spurring her on to wiggle her hips a bit.</p>
<p>“<em>Oh God, Anna!</em>” His voice cracked and broke along with whatever strand of restraint he’d been holding onto as he dove right in without a second thought. No hesitation, no constant stream of questions about his technique interrupting and breaking the mood. Hans, confident in his skill, in his ability to read her. There was no question he’d satisfy her, no lingering doubt or insecurity.</p>
<p>And Anna loved it. Loved not having to constantly reassure or placate or nurture. Loved being the one being pursued for once instead of the other way around. There was something to be said about the chase, and Hans was definitely the one chasing.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” he groaned between licks and kisses, his voice vibrating against her skin and making her shiver in absolute delight.</p>
<p>“Me either,” she gasped, beginning to rock her hips into his face as his tongue delved deep, fucking her gently and straight into bliss. She’d never felt anything quite like this before, the pleasure almost indescribable as he upped his pace and pressure. The tempo increasing gradually being exactly what she needed as the sensation in her cunt went from a dull ache to a maddening throb. And <em>God,</em> she <em>needed</em> this, and Hans? <em>Jesus,</em> he knew exactly where to go. Exactly where to touch to make her squirm, or cry out, or moan.</p>
<p>One night and he’d figured her out, his inquisitive tongue teasing her and coaxing explicit pleasure from her body. He urged her thighs open wider so his hand could join in. The swift brush of his fingers combined with his mouth sent her into a frenzy.</p>
<p>“Yes!” she cried, unable to hold back as his thumb slowly circled her clit, honing in on the little bud with unfounded precision while spearing his tongue back into her slick entrance with force. His mouth pressed firmly against her folds, with his lips a combination of soft heat that seemed to stroke a thrum of ecstasy from deep inside her.</p>
<p>Her hands were in his hair then, gripping fistfuls of his silky tresses as she bucked her hips against him, holding him in place while she rode his tongue; the wide, flat pad of his thumb never letting up, circling her clit harder and she was crying out for him and writhing in bliss all for him.</p>
<p>No, that wasn’t right. It was for her. All for her.</p>
<p>And it was a wonderful realization.</p>
<p>Her orgasm ripped through her with a force that terrified, her body snapping taut, tension in every muscle until she spilled over, perfect pleasure flooding her senses and filling her up, a sense of completion and euphoria quickly rendering her to exhaustion as Hans gently disentangled her from him and set her down amongst the pillows, legs splayed wide and body limp.</p>
<p>When he pulled himself up and looked at her with his eyes shining and that stupid half grin on his face, she knew he was waiting for her to say it. To admit out loud that he had won. As if her rather vocal moans and cries of passion weren’t answer enough.</p>
<p>He had given her an apology that she had accepted.</p>
<p>But was it enough? Disappointment of her reality crept in from the sidelines.</p>
<p>
  <em>It’s only one night. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>One last chance to be crazy.</em>
</p>
<p>She licked her lips as he waited for her on baited breath. Waited for her to admit defeat. She almost laughed. Admit defeat to <em>Hans?</em> Never.</p>
<p>“It was a good start,” she said sweetly, reaching for the buttons on his fall front, pleased to find him rock hard and straining at the fabric. “Sufficient for a princess, yes, but I’m a queen now, Hans. We both know I’m gonna need a bigger apology than that.” She stroked his cock lightly over his trousers.</p>
<p>“Of course,” he answered thickly, going immediately where she led. “I should have known better. Apologies, My Queen.”</p>
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